Greetings! It's Justin from Funk Parade. Our first iteration was possible with your generous support.

We've learned some remarkable truths over the past few years. And we want to put them to work helping those many groups make their own dream projects come true, with your help.

Here's what we've learned.

First: if your community is diverse enough, needs and resources become indistinguishable. Here's what we mean: A group of musicians share the same needs - Money. Patrons. Space to practice, teach or perform. But as part of a diverse group, those needs become resources. A developer may need to activate vacant space, so a musician's need for rehearsal or teaching space becomes a resource for them. A restaurant may seek curatorial help booking weekly music nights, so the musicians' need for patrons and money becomes a resource for them.

Second: When needs and resources merge, it liberates civic entrepreneurs and artists from their old reliance on institutions -- government agencies, big foundations or corporate sponsors. We discover resources in our own communities, simply by connecting people.

Third: We're good at throwing Funk Parades, but we're great at connecting people. We've been playing "switchboard" for our stakeholders, connecting muralists with empty walls, civic entrepreneurs with potential backers, businesses with musicians, city agencies with advice and experts.

With your help we want to launch a new initiative, the All One City network, to convene our stakeholders and recruit others to be part of a new, symbiotic civic engagement network. It will be built on shared beliefs that a city should have robust arts and culture, affordable housing, functional transit, access to quality healthcare and food, and public safety. And above all, an tightly-woven civic fabric which does not allow social boundaries to prevent us from building a diverse and respectful city together.